the late egyptian journalist jalal amer, when talking about the spread of outward religiousness, said taxi drivers play quranic records but they rarely turn on the price meter.
in 2013, pope benedict xvi declared his intention to resign. this announcement stimulated our colleague muhammad al-eraqi to write an article.
in his article, he wished all religious men around the world would step in the shoes of the pope in terms of taking rest and letting others rest as well. he said he wondered what might happen to the world if all religious men resigned. al-eraqi asked, “will the global stock markets crash? will the airports around the world stop working? will the construction movement end? will scientific c inventions and researches, football matches and reproduction end?”. he then said, “none of this will happen and life will continue”.
on the other hand, if religious men resigned, hatred and killing in the name of religion will stop. wearers of explosive belts will stop their crimes. trivial fatwas will no longer exist. it will be the end of the mafia that distributes spots in heaven and hell. people will focus on making up their minds by themselves instead of waiting for readymade answers. mixing politics and religion will vanish.
places of worship will be transformed into scientific and social centers instead of being used for spreading hatred and terrifying people about hell and torture after death. men of religion will become useful and productive in terms of their participation in the advancement and development of the world instead of being redundant and wasting time interpreting dreams.
o’ men of religion, we are not in need of a mediator to take us closer to god or to inform us about him. we are living in the age of information and awareness where communication is easier than any time in the past. in this era of the internet, it takes no time to find information. let us keep our god inside our hearts and let our minds shine with knowledge. let us all enjoy love and friendship without any of your advices and fatwas.
i remembered the article of aleraqi while i was reading the verdict issued by the court of appeals against the members of the former management of imtiaz company.
they were sentenced to three-year imprisonment, and the non-kuwaitis among them are to be deported. they are also obligated to repay the company’s money as well as a suitable compensation to the company for the loss the company and the shareholders (including myself) incurred because of them.
the lawsuit is a well-known one. we have written about it previously. the convicted belong to the salafi bloc and the stolen money is estimated to be tens of millions of dinars. perhaps some of the convicted took advantage of their religious appearance and long beards to deceive others who are characterized by their straightforwardness and good deeds. it was later discovered that these socalled religious men were no better than others, if not more greedy.
i also remembered some leading officials of the public authority for taking care of the printing and publishing of holy quran were previously referred to the public prosecution after they took millions of dinars in the form of allowances and salaries for themselves, and their relatives and friends. they did all this but they did not print even a single copy of the holy quran.
while these officials were in their positions, two plots worth kd 12 million and half owned by the public authority for taking care of printing and publishing of holy quran were removed from the budget. this was mentioned in the minutes of the parliament by mp ahmad al-fadh1.
in addition, i remembered about the arrest of a senior official of a religious ministry few days ago. he had granted allowances and bonuses to some employees but he then forced them to refund a large part of the allowances to him.
i can recollect hundreds of cases in this regard but one article is not large enough to mention all of them. these people, thanks to their long beards and the power of their party, managed to capture hundreds of tenders. they were confident that people will think twice before directing accusations of breach of trust against them.